Tuesday 5 February 1666/67
Up, and to the office, where all the morning doing business, and then home to dinner. Heard this morning that the Prince is much better, and hath good rest. All the talk is that my Lord Sandwich hath perfected the peace with Spayne, which is very good, if true. Sir H. Cholmly was with me this morning, and told me of my Lord Bellasses’s base dealings with him by getting him to give him great gratuities to near 2000l. for his friendship in the business of the Mole, and hath been lately underhand endeavouring to bring another man into his place as Governor, so as to receive his money of Sir H. Cholmly for nothing. Dined at home, and after dinner come Mrs. Daniel and her sister and staid and talked a little, and then I to the office, and after setting my things in order at the office I abroad with my wife and little Betty Michell, and took them against my vowes, but I will make good my forfeit, to the King’s house, to show them a play, “The Chances.” A good play I find it, and the actors most good in it; and pretty to hear Knipp sing in the play very properly, “All night I weepe;” and sung it admirably. The whole play pleases me well: and most of all, the sight of many fine ladies — among others, my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Middleton: the latter of the two hath also a very excellent face and body, I think. Thence by coach to the New Exchange, and there laid out money, and I did give Betty Michell two pair of gloves and a dressing-box; and so home in the dark, over the ruins, with a link. I was troubled with my pain, having got a bruise on my right testicle, I know not how. But this I did make good use of to make my wife shift sides with me, and I did come to sit ‘avec’ Betty Michell, and there had her ‘main’, which ‘elle’ did give me very frankly now, and did hazer whatever I ‘voudrais avec la’, which did ‘plaisir’ me ‘grandement’, and so set her at home with my mind mighty glad of what I have prevailed for so far; and so home, and to the office, and did my business there, and then home to supper, and after to set some things right in my chamber, and so to bed. This morning, before I went to the office, there come to me Mr. Young and Whistler, flaggmakers, and with mighty earnestness did present me with, and press me to take a box, wherein I could not guess there was less than 100l. in gold: but I do wholly refuse it, and did not at last take it. The truth is, not thinking them safe men to receive such a gratuity from, nor knowing any considerable courtesy that ever I did do them, but desirous to keep myself free from their reports, and to have it in my power to say I had refused their offer.
23 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
[A News-Letter, addressed to Sir George Lane]
Written from: [Whitehall]
Date: 5 February 1667
The King of France has given assurances to the States General, by the channel of M. d'Estrades his Ambassador at the Hague, that he will not make a separate Peace.
Lord Winchelsea is reported to have frustrated a design of the French Envoy at Adrianople, to obtain from the Porte, a revocation of the chief English "capitulations", or privileges of trade.
Other advices, political & naval, are added.
_____
Carlingford to Ormond
Written from: London
Date: 5 February 1667
Communicates what passed in Council on occasion of the King's declaration of his appointment of Ambassadors to treat of Peace [as already transmitted to Ormond in letters of other correspondents already calendared]. ...
P.S.: Letters from the Hague mention that, at first, the King's overtures were received with manifestations of joy. ... But, presently, the French & Spanish Ambassadors expressed their dissatisfaction therewith, & demanded that no answer should be returned until their masters could be consulted. ... Eventually, orders were sent to prepare a fleet for sea, with all possible expedition. .
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Terry Foreman • Link
"This morning, before I went to the office, there come to me Mr. Young and Whistler, flaggmakers, and with mighty earnestness did present me with, and press me to take a box...."
The first time we met these chaps in the Diary (22 May 1663) they were portrayed as thieves: "Davis, the storekeeper, a knave, and shuffling in the business of Bewpers, being of the party with Young and Whistler to abuse the King, but I hope I shall be even with them." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
I wonder what proof Pepys thinks he has that he refused their, ah, gratuity?
Robert Gertz • Link
We have his word as a gentleman...
***
"I was troubled with my pain, having got a bruise on my right testicle, I know not how..."
While we could hope Bess gave him a good one the night before...
L. K. van Marjenhoff • Link
You can get beautiful aerial view of the mole at Tangier if you have Google Earth. Key in "Tangier Morocco" to bring it up.
cum salis grano • Link
Have 'bin' readin' how the members of Parliament this day 2010, have been trying to return monies that somehow 'bin" found overpaid into the their accounts.
Modern government understands how you must choose which vendor be 'onest.
Sam has to watch at how his battle ship can be sunk with the wrong ear that can prove the rumour on whom is a soft touch.
L. K. van Marjenhoff • Link
Re the mole in Tangier again -- you can see it in flickr by searching for "msc armonia tangier morocco." Look for the two pictures that show an ocean liner, the MSC ARMONIA, approaching the end of the mole and then docked at it.
Michael Robinson • Link
@ L K van Marjenhoff * Spoiler * Tangier Mole.
I am not certain what the date is of the construction you are seeing today, however the various stages of the complete demolition of still incomplete Tangier Mole are recorded in Pepys's 'Tangier Journal' of 1683. By the time of the British departure, Feb 5th 1684, the city had been razed to make it uninhabitable and the the mole destroyed completely to render the artificial harbor again open to the Atlantic and unusable. See C. S. Knighton ed. Pepys Later Diaries Stroud, Glouces.: Sutton Publishing, 2004 pp. 127-194.
The extent of the destruction was recorded contemporaneously in a set watercolors later reproduced as prints:
Four Views of Tangier, before and after the destruction, 1684. Engravings, after Ensgn. Thomas Phillips, Nicholas Yeates and John Collins [London: before Jan 5th. 1685]
Pepys's set of these, said to be the only such surviving, is reproduced Knighton, color plate II-V.
Tony Eldridge • Link
Love to imagine the dialogue in the coach:
"Bess, my dear, do you mind giving my left testicle a little more room? No, Betty, the right one's fine - just stay where you are."
A. De Araujo • Link
"...to make my wife shift sides with me."
It amazes me the chances that Sam takes to satisfy his sexual urges!was the theater dark?If his wife did
catch him"with his pants down" what would she have done?
Robert Gertz • Link
Gone after him with a red hot poker...
Ok, that was a spoiler...
Jesse • Link
“…to make my wife shift sides with me.”
If it was simple, base desire then why not secretively fondle the missus? Not to excuse our dapper hero but...
cum salis grano • Link
The "...play, “The Chances.” A good play I find it, and the actors most good in it;..."
dothe he remember this quotable line?
"...Then, everlasting Love, restrain thy will; 'Tis god-like to have power, but not to kill...."
Topic: Power
Source: The Chances (act II, sc. 2, song)
Robert Gertz • Link
"If it was simple, base desire then why not secretively fondle the missus?"
Heaven...
"What the devil would have been the novelty, let alone the excitement of avoiding doom, in that? Eh, Bess? Bess?"
cum salis grano • Link
It has been said before.
e.g. Syrus "Amare et sepere vix deo conceditur"
The gods never let Luv and wisdom mix.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"All the talk is that my Lord Sandwich hath perfected the peace with Spayne, which is very good, if true."
L&M note the news was premature: see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
" hath been lately underhand endeavouring to bring another man into his place as Governor, so as to receive his money of Sir H. Cholmly for nothing."
L&M: Cholmly had hoped to become Governor. Belasye was in 1668 succeeded by the Earl of Middleton.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I will make good my forfeit, to the King’s house, to show them a play, “The Chances.”"
L&M: A comedy by John Fetcher, written about 1617 and published in 1647. The production which Pepys saw probably used the revision of the play made by the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and published in 1682. It is generally agreed that that Buckingham imroved both the structure and the characterisation of the play.
Terry Foreman • Link
"to the King’s house, to show them a play, “The Chances.” A good play I find it, and the actors most good in it"
L&M: According to Downes (p. 16), the part of Don Juan in this play was one of Charles Hart's best performances.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I will make good my forfeit, to the King’s house, to show them a play, “The Chances.” A good play I find it, and the actors most good in it; and pretty to hear Knipp sing in the play very properly, “All night I weepe;” and sung it admirably."
L&M: The song was probably inserted for Constancia's off-stage singing in II, 2 or IV, 3. It is not in the text of the play or in that of the Duke of Buckingham's alteration.
San Diego Sarah • Link
No one has translated this one yet:
"On February 5th 1667 he even manages some stimulation with Betty while sitting next to his wife:
"I did come to sit avec Betty Michell, and there had her main, which elle did give me very frankly now, and did hazer whatever I voudrais avec l', which did plaisir me grandement"
"His French is clear: avec = with, main = hand, elle = she, hazer = make, voudrais avec la = would have with her, plaisir = pleasure, grandement = greatly, besar = kiss
http://www.pepys.info/bits.html
Matt Newton • Link
I think the high jinx took place in a coach on the way home.
Not the theatre?
Mary K • Link
So Betty gave Samuel her hand "very frankly"
Does this mean that she reached through the side-slit in her own petticoat (the slit through which ladies of the time normally reached for their own pockets/purses) in order to guide Samuel's had to its destination? Sounds like it.
Surely this took place in the darkened coach on the way home ("so set her at home") rather than in the candlelit theatre. Samuel's accounts of theatre visits show that members of the audience could be quite as interested in observing one another as they were in watching the actors.
San Diego Sarah • Link
So Betty gave Samuel her hand "very frankly" -- I read that as being without hesitation.
And I understand "which did ‘plaisir’ me ‘grandement’," as Betty pleasuring Pepys, not the other way around.
He hasn't mentioned being that enlightened or unselfish in this on-going nightmare as I recall.